Suspicions and Consequences of Cases Past
by purple.sunrise
Summary: When Emily arrived at the BAU, Gideon found her familiar but couldn't place where he met her. As time goes on, he starts to put the pieces together and he considers an alarming possibility for her sudden arrival in the BAU. As he investigates, he finds he is right and wrong as well why he found her familiar. Companion story to Our Unpredictable Road
1. Prologue

**This will be a multi chapter companion piece on the Hotchniss storyline. It will follow through until Gideon leaves the team. I came up with idea for this part of the story after watching a rerun of Secrets and Lies. I hope you enjoy it.  
**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

 **Set after 1x21- Secrets and Lies**

Jason Gideon sat at his desk, looking at the newspaper in front of him.

It had been a week since the team had been called into to find a mole within the CIA. At the end of the day, the mole was caught and it had turn out to be Gideon's old friend and department head Bruno Hawks.

As Gideon spoke to Bruno as the team arrested him, Gideon realized it was more than just Summers call that had forced Bruno's hand in needing to call Gideon and by extension, his team in to investigate.

Bruno was arrogant enough to believe that he wouldn't be caught, at least not before he made sure Hassan Nadir was dead which would remove all proof of his duplicity. He was also arrogant enough to believe that his years of knowledge would protect him from consequences if his actions were discovered.

But today, Gideon had just read the front page story about the car accident that took the life of Bruno. Though that he actually died in a car accident was improbable considering he was still in custody.

But that wasn't the part that concerned Gideon about the whole situation. What had stuck with him since that day was what Bruno said to him as he was being arrested -

 _I think the consequences of what you're doing to me my friend are gonna be a lot harder to live with than you think._

Gideon had been focused on that statement since they left Langley that day. It wasn't this first time a suspect had made a threat when caught.

But this was different. Bruno wasn't a typical UNSUB. Given the amount of time he had been in his position in the CIA, he had the capability to follow through with his threat in multiple ways.

Had Bruno just been trying to get under his skin?

Or when Summers triggered the protocol that had obligated him to consult the BAU had Bruno activated a premeditated plan at the same time in case he was arrested knowing that if one person could figure out what Bruno's nefarious plan was, it would be Jason Gideon?

Or had he been arrogant enough to think he would be able to talk his way out when caught and seek revenge himself?

Gideon had no doubt the Bruno would be capable of hurting him. Over the course of their investigation, the team had found that Bruno had killed one member of his team, framed another one for it and gave another a direct order to kill the one person who had the evidence the BAU needed to identify the mole. Gideon had no illusions that the years that they had known each other wouldn't protect him from Bruno's wrath if it ever came to that.

And then the question was whether Bruno threat included just to him personally or to the entire BAU. And for all his experience of a profiler, Gideon just didn't know for sure. And that uncertainty especially with the lives of the team was unnerving. The first anniversary of the deaths of his six agents in Boston had just past. He didn't know if he had it in him to come back from losing a team again.


	2. Chapter 1

**EPISODE 2.10**

Jason Gideon contemplates the chess board and then his opponent. This has turned out to be an enlightening game with a skilled opponent. He had frequently compared how someone plays chess with how they profile. If that holds true, then Prentiss is going to be a huge asset regardless of how she got to the team.

In all his year of playing, he has rarely seen a similar strategy. It was taking concentration to follow what she is doing. This was a strategy would make Reid cry. Then he looks up and finds HER profiling HIM. With a smirk. 'I'm going to need to keep an eye on this woman.' Gideon thought.

After they complete their second game, Gideon asked Prentiss where she learned to play like that. Her answer, "Sir, I was raised by diplomats. I learned to keep circling around until the other person gets frustrated before I learned to ride a bike." Gideon gives a chuckle.

 **####**

Emily was sitting at her desk working to complete her report from the case they had just completed the night before. She gave a quick glance up to Gideon's office and then resumed nervously tapping her foot.

All morning, Gideon had either been avoiding her or attempting to covertly observe her. And that was even before he had blown up at the team.

She knew she had screwed up. Had gotten too cocky on the plane when they were playing chess. She had been changing her strategy in their games based on what she had observed when Gideon and Reid were playing. And what she was profiling about him as they were playing. And she checkmated him...twice.

While it seemed last night that he had taken it well, she was gradually becoming more nervous because of how he was acting towards her this morning.

Her place in the BAU was by no means secure. Hotch had agreed that she was staying but only because Chief Strauss had forced the issue. If Gideon also didn't support her on the team, would Strauss then decide to transfer her off the team?

 **####**

Sitting at his desk, Gideon can't focus on the paperwork in front of him. He knows that he has seen the name Emily Prentiss before however he can't place where. Was she in one of his lectures? Was it from a case when she was working in a field office?

With her only joining the team a few days earlier, he hasn't had an opportunity to review her file. Maybe there will be some indication there. Generally, looking through an agent's file is something he would do when they are considering a candidate or wanted to add a specific person. Unfortunately with Prentiss, Strauss went over their heads and just added her to the team, sight unseen.

 **####**

Hotch walks through the glass doors into the bullpen. He observed the three junior profilers on his team working quietly at their desks. Surprised by that for a moment because generally Reid and Morgan have a constant ongoing dialogue on paperwork days.

As he came up behind her, Hotch noticed the team's newest member was acting uncharacteristically nervous. Her torso was slightly hunched over, nervous tapping on her feet and fingers up at her mouth. And then as if a switch was flipped, as if she suddenly sensed his presence, she seemed to relax and started writing in the file in front of her again.

On the way to his office, Hotch spots Gideon working at his desk looking somewhat distracted.

What is going on this afternoon? No one is acting like themselves.

Reid and Morgan aren't taunting each other. Reid hadn't blurting out a single random fact.

He hadn't seen Garcia in the bullpen fussing over Morgan yet today.

JJ was working in her office with the door shut which was very unusual. JJ was rarely in her office for long and when she was, she almost never worked with the door shut.

Emily was more nervous that she had been since joining the team.

And now Gideon is distracted.

Hopefully it is just the aftermath of this case. And once the paperwork is completed, his team would resume normal patterns.

Hotch shook his head and decides to stop to talk to Gideon. He still needs to check in with him about how Emily did on the case. With Gideon having been less than thrilled to take her to Gitmo, Hotch hoped she had been at least somewhat helpful.

He walks up to Gideon door and steps in. "Jason, do you have a few minutes."

Gideon looks up from the file in front of him and closes it. "Sure, Hotch what do you need?"

Hotch closed the door and walked over to sit in one of the visitor chairs. "How did Prentiss do on the case?"

Gideon smiled slightly before responding, "She was able to determine he was Egyptian within the first 5 minutes that I was speaking to him. When I mentioned to him we knew he was Egyptian, it created a starting point to get him talking. I still needed to speed up the timing of his prayers to get him into revealing the location before the attack. However, with the time we had I don't think there would have been a way around that regardless. Overall she was professional, handled herself well, worked well with Reid and I, asked appropriate questions, and was knowledgeable about the situation we were facing."

Hotch took in Gideon's overly professional answer when generally he was more candid when they were talking privately. Hotch's face revealed concern. "OK then, what are your reservations?"

Gideon smiled and tapped his chin, looking thoughtful. He should have known not much got by the other profiler. "Not sure yet. I can't put my finger on it. I'm not sure if it's a real problem or I'm just annoyed that she beat me at chess...twice."

"Ouch. Why is it bothering you other than you don't like to lose?" Everyone knew that Gideon didn't like to loss, especially at chess. Though Gideon described himself as being annoyed, Hotch also could see flickers him being impressed with how she played.

Gideon stood up and picked up his coffee cup and started pacing in his office. "Well, let's see. The first game I noticed she gave very little away with tells. I probably focused on looking for them rather the strategy she was using on the board. She could tell I was studying her and used it to her advantage. She's a skilled player. When we finished the game, I thought I had her tells and strategy figured out. So I challenged her to a second game. She completely changed her strategy and hid her tells. I lost my focus on the game. Then I looked over and noticed that she was profiling me. It was unnerving."

Hotch chuckled. "She is a profiler, Jason. She's also trained to look for tells. Did she cheat?" He asked concerned.

Gideon stopped his pacing for a moment, looked at Hotch confused and shook his head. "No, no cheating at all. Strategy was legal. Somewhat unorthodox, risky at times and she took chances that I'm not sure I would have."

Hotch looked worriedly at Gideon, almost afraid of the answer he was going to get to the question he was able to ask. "So she was reckless?"

Gideon looked right at Hotch thoughtfully and shrugged his right shoulder. Then shook his head. "Maybe but I don't think so. It goes back to strategy. She was taking risks but they were calculated, she knew what she was trying to accomplish, what her goal was."

Hotch took a deep breath, "What does all this tell you about how she'll do as a profiler."

"In a profiler, I think that it's positive. She can clearly think outside the box. She was also easily able to change up her strategy and circle around until she is able to capitalize on an opening. That will be extremely helpful when she does interrogations." Gideon explained.

"OK then what is unnerving you?" Hotch asked, concerned.

"How easily she could mask her tells. I feel like I could only read what she was willing to show. And I was not reading very accurately. That isn't just something a person can just decide to do one day. If it was, we'd all be out of a job. It would take training and effort. So the question is why did she gain the training and/or make the effort to do it?" Gideon explained after he resumed pacing across the office. He looked down at his coffee cup and then walked over to his coffee maker and filled his cup.

"Well, it looks like you are going to have time to try and answer those questions. Strauss is adamant that she is staying." Hotch said as he stood up and started walking for the door. "I'm on my way to review her file and the paperwork she complete with JJ. Then I need to schedule her competencies with Morgan and myself before I can consider putting her in the field. Hopefully we can get those done in the next couple of weeks."

"I hope she passes without a problem. We need her to be able to go into the field. Let me know how they go. I also want to see her file when you are done. There is something familiar about her and I'm trying to determine from where." Gideon says as he comes up besides Hotch and they look out the window of the office. Reid had looked up and immediately got back to his file when he saw the team leaders looking into the bullpen.

"I will. And oh, Jason, do you happen to know why the bullpen is so quiet today?"

"Quiet." Gideon chuckled. "You should have been here earlier Hotch. Total chaos. I could hear them with the door closed. I may have told the 4 of them if they didn't get back to work, I was going to find something for them to do and they wouldn't like it."

"Maybe because last time you had them organizing old case files for one of your lectures." Hotch said smiling at the memory of the team lugging files back and forth from the crowded and dusty file room for 4 hours.

"True and that saved me so much time. I sent JJ and Garcia back to their offices with instructions I didn't want to see them in the bullpen the rest of the day unless it was about a case. You should also expect everyone's paperwork on your desk by 4:45 at the latest. You don't have to thank me." Gideon laughed and looked back out the window catching Morgan's eye this time with a serious look on his face.

"That will help me get out of here on time tonight. Haley will be shocked. So you said the 4 of them- who wasn't involved in the chaos?"

"Prentiss. She was watching from back at the break room. Looked intrigued but stayed out of it. She was the first back to her desk when I came down. I may have scared her a bit." Gideon knew from her reaction earlier that there was no 'may have' in the equation. He had scared her.

"I'd say that was accurate. She seemed nervous when I came back just now before she noticed I was walking up behind her." As they looked down, both could see she had her fingers back up at her mouth. "Well, there's a tell for you."

"Sure is. Maybe I should have scared her last night." Gideon said smirking.

"Bye, Jason. Try to behave, at least for the rest of the day." Hotch shook his head and schooled his face before opening the door and walking confidently down to his office without looking down at the bullpen.

 **####**

An hour later and Gideon was done with his report. He looked back down at the bullpen and noticed that Prentiss had been looking at the same file for the last 45 minutes. He was fairly sure she had completed her report for the case and just didn't have anything else to work on at this point. The Indianapolis consult she and Hotch had discussed had been completed the day before the terrorism case the team just finished.

Deciding to remove her from complete boredom for the next 2 hours while attempting to redeem himself, Gideon made the decision to challenge her to another game of chess. Hopefully she will understand from the request that there are no hard feelings. And she'd stop looking so worried.

Walking over to his door, Gideon looks down at the still quiet bullpen and yells down. "Prentiss, my office now." Then he walked away from the door.

Emily froze when she heard him. She slowly rose from her chair and trying but failing to look confident as she walked over to the stairs leading to Gideon's office. She saw looks of concern coming from Reid and Morgan as she climbed the stairs. Wishing that the floor would swallow her before she reached his office.

He had discovered one of her secrets, she just knew it. She had been with the team for less than a week and they had already figured her history out. 'Damn profilers.' she thought.

Stopping briefly at the top of the stairs, she took a deep breath and blew it out. Schooling her face, she knocked on Gideon's door. "You asked to see me, sir."

Gideon was sitting in a chair in the corner of his office by a table surrounded with books. "Yes. Come in and shut the door."

Emily walked into his office and shut the door. She immediately noticed all of the framed photos sitting on a table opposite his desk. She took a couple of steps forward and stopped, looking at the far wall.

Gideon looked up and noticed at once she was nervous. He quickly stood up and explained. "You're not in trouble. They are. Thanks to the continuous quiet today, for once, I finished my paperwork early. I noticed that you have been done for about 45 minutes now." He smiled when he saw the look of shock pass over her face. "I was hoping you would be willing to let me try to redeem myself at chess. Would you like to play?"

A wide smile quickly passed over Emily's face. "Yes, sir. I'd like to play."

"Good, let's get started." He pointed to a chair on the other side of the table where he had his chess board set up.


	3. Chapter 2

**EPISODE 2.12**

Gideon found it difficult to settle once he reached his room after dinner. He could not stop thinking that it was his profile these officers had used as justification to arrest Morgan. He and Hotch would need to discuss if the team needed to change how they approached doing consults.

Of all the consults that he had ever done, how many officers had used it the same way as these detectives had? How many innocent people have been arrested because of one of his profiles? The thought of innocent people in prison because of one of his profiles sickened him.

After pacing around his room for longer than he wanted to admit, Gideon decided to go down the vending machine near the front desk.

As he walked off the elevator, Gideon noticed that the lobby appeared to be deserted. Not that he was surprised given the hour. As he entered the lobby, he heard voices though he couldn't see the people talking. After a few seconds he realized that the parties in the conversation were Hotch and Prentiss.

Gideon groaned, wondering if he should intervene. He knew this case had touched several of Hotch's hot buttons. It had been obviously at dinner that Hotch wasn't pleased that Prentiss wasn't there. And the team didn't need Hotch blowing up at her unwarranted… again. He must have been waiting for her when she came back from wherever she had disappeared to after the case finished.

As he moved closer, Gideon stopped just out of sight when he heard the topic of their discussion. Aaron! Emily! Since when are those two on a first name basis?

They have a past they were keeping from the team !? When did that happen? And was it personal or professional?

Obviously there was more going on with these two than any of them realized. Wondering how he had missed the signs, Gideon shook his head and turned to return to his room having forgotten about the vending machine.

 **####**

Gideon had a lot on his mind as he settled into his seat on the jet. The revelation that Hotch and Prentiss had a past connection had been a shock. And as one of the best profilers in the world, that didn't happen very often.

Gideon knew that Prentiss' personal file was still sitting on his desk. Hotch had dropped it off the previous week after he had reviewed it. However between his workload at the BAU and several lectures at the Academy, he hadn't gotten the opportunity to examine it yet. Now that was going to be a priority when they got back to the BAU.


	4. Chapter 3

**EPISODE 2.13**

Gideon looked around the jet as the team headed home from Nevada. No one could call how the case had ended successful. Their UNSUB, a psychopath who had killed more than 100 women, had forced everyone's hand, allowing him to escape with a woman who he was obsessed with. The rescue of the sheriff and the bus of children had been victories however the team knew they hadn't had their last interaction with Frank.

Gideon took in the tired faces of the team. Reid was stretched out of the couch, asleep. Morgan was sitting back in his seat with his eyes closed and headphones on. Just a few minutes earlier, Hotch had put his paperwork away and looked to have fallen asleep.

Then there was Prentiss. Other than him, she was the only other one awake on the jet. She was sitting with her head resting on the wall of the plane, arms resting on top of a pillow looking out the window deep in thought. Gideon had no idea how she was still awake after the nonstop hours the team had put in on this case.

Gideon had to admit, he had been impressed with her interview of Crazy Jane. And he didn't impressed easily. Prentiss had been able to gain significant information from Jane early in the investigation. Her empathy had lead her to be one of the few people that Jane had opened up to about her experience.

He still couldn't get the look of her face and the sound of her voice out of his head from when she arrived with the LEOs and the rest of the team after Gideon had found the children and found out Jane was gone.

As Hotch was coordinating with the LEOs on how to approach the search, Gideon had gone over to one of the ambulances where the children were being looked over. They were assigning Prentiss and Reid to head back with the kids to the police station where parents were waiting and conduct interviews.

He had almost forgot what he was going to say when he saw her in the back of an ambulance with several kids. Prentiss had taken off her coat and had 3 of the youngest kids in the group wrapped up together by it. She had 2 other kids on her lap wrapped up in blankets clinging to her. She quickly nodded at her assignment and turned her attention back to the kids.

When he and Morgan had arrived back at the police station a couple of hours later, Gideon was surprised that there were still a few kids left to be interviewed. That was until an officer informed them that only 2 of the older kids would agree to talk to Reid. All of the other kids would only talk to Prentiss. And given the traumatic experience that they had been through, the parents had agreed to the long wait. The sheriff's office had brought in hot food for the kids.

After finishing his 2 interviews, Reid had moved over next to Prentiss and was acting as her scribe. Or at least that was his story. When Gideon walked over it was clear that Reid was mesmerized by her easy interactions with each of the children. However, the experienced profiler could see what no one else was, the emotional toll that all these interviews with traumatized young children was having on his agent. Fortunately at that point, there were only a couple more kids she needed to interview.

That had been a day and a half ago. In that time, the BAU team, the officers from the Sheriff's office and the State Police had coordinated to do a multi approach search for Frank and Jane. However, after the car Frank used after he had left Gideon was parked close to a police checkpoint inside the perimeter while the largest used car dealership in the county laid just 0.5 miles away on the other side of the checkpoint, the search of the desert was called off. The owner of the dealership was cooperating however they all knew Frank wouldn't keep the whatever car he had stolen for long.

At that point, there was little more the BAU team could do in Nevada and Hotch called for the jet to be prepared for their return to DC. The case would remain active and they assured the Sheriff they would return if there was evidence that Frank was headed back that way. However, now that he had Jane, they didn't know what his next step would be.

As Gideon looked up from his musings, he noticed that Prentiss had succumb to exhaustion and now was also asleep. Hoping that it would be a smooth ride, he reclined in his seat and closed his eyes hoping that sleep would pull him under as well.


	5. Chapter 4

Jason Gideon was sitting at his desk closely examining the file in front of him. Unlike most of what he looked at when here in his office, this wasn't a case file. He had dug this particular file out from the pile where Hotch had left it weeks earlier. The personnel file for the team's newest agent SSA Emily Prentiss. While Gideon wanted to look through her entire file, for today he had only focused on her skills set and work history.

The team had returned from Georgia over a week ago. After completing his paperwork from the case, he and Hotch had immediately been pulled into Bureau inquiries about Reid's kidnapping. Reid had just returned to work the previous day. The entire team was working through their psych clearances as well as JJ and Reid needed to complete medical clearances before the team could return to the field.

Gideon had planned to read through Emily Prentiss' file as soon as they returned. However the inquiry had taken precedence. Now that that was complete, he could return to the file. He had already waited too long since she joined the team.

He was interested in what skills this newest agent brought to the team. He wondered what other hidden talents she had other than being able to beat him at chess and impeccable language skills.

He also wanted to see if her file gave any insight about the nature of the past relationship between her and Hotch. Ever since overhearing their conversation at the hotel in Chicago, various scenarios had been swirling around in his head.

Based on what he overheard during that conversation he hypothesized that it personal than professional. And whether he realized it or not, Hotch had confirmed with his reaction in Georgia that not only had there been a relationship between them in the past but that it had been personal.

But most importantly, he wanted to see if there were any notations that would indicate what previous work she did where she would have been taught tapping.

And as he put the file back down on his desk, that information had been enough for him to mull over. As he looked down at the closed file in front of him, he had 2 overall thoughts-

-he was certain that whatever relationship Hotch and Emily had was personal

and

-at least part of Emily's work history was a backstop which would strongly support his theory that she had worked for the CIA.

From looking at her Academy record and first assignment, Prentiss would have been at the Academy then St Louis when Hotch was assigned to Seattle. At least that part of her work history was accurate because of the content of the recommendation he had just read from Katie Cole.

After Seattle, Hotch was assigned to the BAU. If they had a work interaction since Hotch came to the BAU, Gideon would have known about it. There was no overlap between the field office Prentiss had listed in her file and where Gideon knew Hotch had travelled to do solo consults. Sure Hotch and Prentiss could have met at a conference or a similar meeting but he didn't think so from their conversation.

He was further intrigued that part of her history was a backstop. He was able to notice the hallmarks of one. He sighed and shook his head as he thought, 'a crappy, hastily written one compiled by someone who didn't understand her education, experience and skill set.'

With his previous covert dual position also working with the Counterterrorism division of the CIA, Gideon had seen many backstops. And even written a few over the years for CIA agents coming off classified assignments. It also wasn't the first time that an agent in the BAU had one in their file.

As he sat at his desk, a cold shiver went down his spine. Opening his desk drawer, he pulled out a newspaper that he had placed in there months earlier. It was the story about the death of Bruno Hawks after the BAU arrested him at the CIA. As he held the paper, the threat Bruno made came back to him.

He had put all that aside after Bruno's death as there hadn't been a lot of time between when the arrest happened and when Hawks' 'accident' happened. But had it been enough time for him to put a revenge plan in motion? And was Emily Prentiss' presence in the BAU part of the consequences that Bruno threatened?

He stood up and started pacing his office. Hotch has a past relationship with Prentiss and ever since she was assigned to the team, he had been suspicious with her. Maybe Hotch knew something about her that gave him cause to be suspicious with her. Why hadn't Gideon asked him? Why had he assumed that it was Hotch's overreaction?

Sitting back down at his desk, he picked up her file. The file that had left him with more questions than when he opened the file a couple of hours earlier. And no real answers.

From his years with the CIA, Gideon still had contacts and his security clearance. He was going to need to tap into both to investigate if Prentiss had an nefarious agenda against the BAU. Until then he would need to keep his findings to himself.

Gideon looked up at the knock on his door followed by JJ sticking her head in saying that they were gathering for the daily briefing.

"I'll be right there, JJ." Gideon watched as JJ closed the door and walked toward the conference room. He took Prentiss' file and placed it in his desk drawer. He would come back to it when after he made some inquiries.


	6. Chapter 5

As the team flew back from Houston, Gideon sat alone as he continued to process the case from which they were returning. The UNSUB wasn't a bad person. Roy Woodridge was man who had a traumatic experience as a soldier that had changed him. And in the years since he returned according to his friend, Max and wife, Dana, he had been trying hard to reclaim his life though unable to escape the effects of some triggers.

Then one day he stopped to do the routine maintenance on his truck of changing a flat tire when his mind mistook construction noise and pulled him into the PTSD fueled delusion that he was back in a war zone. Delusions that resulted in him taking lives, believing that he was protecting himself and his mission. It was those deaths for which the locals had called in the BAU.

And with the help of his friend Max bridging the two worlds, they had been so close to bringing him in and getting him the help that he needed. But before they could reach him, a jackhammer had once again triggered his delusion about being back in a war zone, undoing all the progress that they had made with the help of his friend.

And that in and of itself wasn't the worst part. That they could have tried to work through with him. No the worst part was the innocent child who just happened to come into sight. Roy Woodridge picked up the child after surveying the scene. His mind telling him that they were in danger and he was going to protect this child. Trying to have a different outcome than the child dying in front of him in Somalia that had haunted him all these years.

But the police and SWAT that had come with Gideon and Max didn't see his actions as trying to save the child. What they saw was a man who had murdered several people who now was holding an innocent child which resulted in them shooting him which had resulted in his death.

And as he looked out the plane window, Gideon couldn't help but consider his own experience with PTSD. He had misread a bomber which resulted in the deaths of six agents. Even his attempt to run back into the building to warning them when the com wasn't getting him an answer. The bureau had had him out of the field for six months though had allowed him after some time to teach at the academy.

When he had been cleared to return to the team 18 months ago, it had been with Hotch having taken over his role as Unit Chief. And the Bureau had Hotch reporting back on how he was handling field work. Additionally he found himself having to once again prove himself in the field as well as deal with being questioned and regaining trust.

In one of his first cases back, he was forced to face the bomber who created the device that had killed his team. They had been forced to bring Bale in to consult on the copycat of his bomb. A necessity to save an innocent man's life that threatened to undo all of the progress that Gideon had made since Boston. But that time, Gideon recognized Bale's advice as a way of assuring the bomb would explode and had them cut the opposite wire thus disarming the bomb successfully.

After that things started to fall into place at work. That was until the Fisher King case. It was bad enough that they had an UNSUB targeting the team but Garcia inadvertently giving the UNSUB a way to hack into her computer system to find their locations had compromised his cabin- his sanctuary. Tarnished it with the evils of their work when a head was delivered to his doorstep. And now he was left trying to come to terms that as well.

Looking across the plane, his eyes rested on Spencer. As he sighed and shook his head, Gideon saw the effect that his kidnapping, torture and near death was still having on Reid. The fact that the younger man was struggling was unambiguous. But would Reid end up with PTSD as well? It was too early to tell.

He was still working through the last of his visits with the Bureau psychologist. But even with that they were watching him closely. They all knew anyone in the BAU could easily pass a psych evaluation because they wrote the questions that were used. And they could tell he wasn't OK. But they couldn't formally do anything at this point. And Gideon didn't want to do anything formal at this point because that would put Reid on the same path he had been on whether Reid needed to be on it or not. And Gideon didn't want that for his mentee.

And then that took him to Prentiss. He had been carefully observed her since he witnessed her tapping on plane when they came home from Georgia. At that point the nervous tic had him hypothesizing that she had been in the CIA. And what was in her official job history showed(and didn't show) had also screamed CIA to him.

However as he observed her, he was questioning that conclusion. While Prentiss did have qualities that would make her appealing to the CIA as it did for the FBI, there were also qualities behaviorally that did not make sense for a CIA field agent. As a BAU field agent he was still confident she would be a strong addition. But he honestly didn't see the CIA as an agency that would best match her skill set as he knew them.

Which brought up an interesting thought- was Prentiss really what she appeared or was what they knew about her part of a cover?

He sat back and shook his head. He will have a better idea when he returned to his office. He had received a message while they were in Houston that Prentiss' unredacted job history was available to him to examine. At least then, he would know if there was a connection to Bruno Hawks as well as if he needed to be concerned.

 **####**

It had been 2 days since the team returned from Houston. He had handed in his report on the case to Hotch and had just sat down to look over the Bureau and job history of Emily Prentiss.

He was somewhat relieved to see that even in her Academy application and records she had indicated an interest in profiling and the BAU. She had elected to come back to Quantico a couple of years after the Academy to take the profiling courses. As he looked at the dates, he noticed that he hadn't taught the course she was in as he remembered not teaching that semester so that wasn't how he knew her. This at least showed that she had a long term interest in profiling.

Turning the page, he came to the information of her assignments. As he had expected, the earliest assignment in the midwest with Crimes Against Children were real as was her assignment to Chicago immediately before the BAU. It also hadn't surprised him that she refused the first offer the CIA made her.

He was pleasantly surprised that she had worked a few cases with the BAP and recognized the names of a few of the agents she had been on cases with. In fact, one name in particular stood out as someone who was also a former BAU agent as well as someone Gideon was having lunch with sometime in the next couple of weeks. Given he had also written one of her recommendation, Gideon was confident that Sam Cooper knew her well enough to share with Gideon if there was anything about Prentiss that wasn't in her record.

As he anticipated, she was pulled in the fall of 2001 to do translations in DC. Why that assignment was not in her official record that didn't make sense as everyone with Arabic fluency was brought in then.

Turning the page again, there it was. She was recruited again by the CIA. And this time she accepted and was immediately sent for training. After she completed the training, she was loaned to an Joint Task Force.

It was JTF-12 to be exact. He knew of this team. The members of the team were comprised of the best and brightest from the countries participating. Given what he knew of her, Gideon could understand why she would have qualified on that criteria.

However JTF-12 took profiling several steps past what the BAU did. They even went further than the BAP did in that they formulated their profiles in part by infiltration. That revelation gave Gideon pause. He wasn't sure who had done Prentiss' psych clearance at the CIA but having worked with her for several months now, he balked at her being assigned to work undercover. Why had she been given this assignment?

However, Gideon scratched his head, the reports he had read were that the American representative to JTF-12 was killed on their first assignment. Had he been misinformed or was Prentiss a late addition to the taskforce?

The cases that they had solved had been impressive. They had formulated profiles for a number of criminals that had allowed the host country to make arrests and prosecute.

But it hadn't been all good news coming from that taskforce. Rumors were something had gone very wrong on their last case that had bred mistrust within the team and JTF-12 was disbanded because of that. He hadn't heard the specifics though he hadn't looked too far into the situation either.

Unfortunately, Prentiss' work on the taskforce wasn't in this file. He would need to make a separate request for those records. A request he would be making before the end of the day because something wasn't adding up for him.

Turning to the last page in the new information, he saw Bruno Hawks as the person that recruited her to the CIA. An uneasy feeling again surrounded him. She did have a connection to Hawks and by this, a strong connection.

He had been hoping it was paranoia when he saw her tapping. An overreaction to the threat Bruno had made the previous year. But now he was looking at the file of an agent who had been involved with a team that was disbanded because of mistrust on that team who was recruited by the person who had made a threat to the BAU.

He needed to get more information before making his move. And he needed to before she did if that was her plan. That lunch with Cooper would need to be as soon as possible.

Just before he closed the file a notation on the last sheet of paper caught his eye and he gasped. Listed under the psych clearance was listed the name: Jason Gideon. That is how he knew her. He needed to see what he had written in her clearance.


	7. Chapter 6

**AN: Here is the next chapter. Sorry for the delay. I needed to start posting Secrets, Half-Truths and Statistics for some of this to make sense. Hope you enjoy it.**

It had been a few weeks since Gideon had discovered Emily Prentiss was recruited to the CIA by Bruno Hawks as well as Gideon had done her psych evaluation years ago when she started at the CIA. It had finally given him an answer as to why she seemed familiar but he couldn't place from where. He had done over a hundred evaluations in the months around when he had done Prentiss'.

Seeing what he had feared in writing had shaken him. She had known Bruno and apparently well. Despite her hesitancy about CIA, she joined and had been assigned to joint task force whose achievements were well known in counterterrorism circles.

But after the taskforce disbanded, she had time off and then went back to the FBI and was assigned to a desk position in Chicago. Or did she? Was that part of her backstop?

He sat back in his chair as decided what he should do next. After finding out he did her psych evaluation, he had tried to access it to see what he had written. See how it compared behaviorally to what he had been observing since she joined the team.

However when he got into the CIA database, it wasn't there at all. It wasn't just an inactive link. The evaluation had been deleted. That was a problem as the intake evaluation was suppose to be a permanent part of each agent file. As such, there were only a limited number of people who could have accomplished it. Bruno Hawks was one of those people.

A visit to Langley was ultimately unsuccessful as well in locating a hard copy in the file room.

With that being a dead end, there was only one other place he could possibly find it - his files at his cabin. He kept copies of all the evaluations he had done in his safe there.

He sighed as he thought about how badly did he really want to see it. Since the Randall Gardner case and the head being delivered there, he had not been back to his cabin. It now just felt contaminated somehow. He needed to think.

Additionally Cooper had needed to reschedule their lunch three times now as his team was at a critical point with their current case so he hadn't been able to ask him any questions about her yet.

But Gideon needed to act soon. Over the last few weeks, Prentiss and Reid had become inseparable starting shortly after they returned from New Orleans. This was a complete 180 from after Georgia, they were frequently at odds as Reid had made her the main target of his anger and Prentiss had increasingly been pushing back. Regardless of the circumstances he was concerned about the sudden dramatic change in their dynamic.

And really he only had himself to blame. He had seen Spencer struggling for weeks. While Gideon had wanted to give him time to work through what happened himself, in hindsight he should have tried to talk to him long before he did in New Orleans.

On a good day, Spencer's naivete had made him susceptible. With what he was going through in Georgia, he was also vulnerable. And now he is attached at the hip with someone Gideon suspected may be trying to destroy the BAU.

Given what Reid meant to all of them, he would be a good first target for someone trying to hurt all of them. With this new development, it was even more important that he find the answer to the question of Emily Prentiss' intentions.

Deciding to not wait any longer, he walks over to the door and called down into the bullpen, "Prentiss, my office." before turning and going back to sit behind his desk.

A couple of minutes later, she comes to the door and he gestures her in. Once the door is closed and she is sitting on one of his visitor chairs, he says, "So Prentiss, it been what about five months since you started in the BAU?"

Emily tilted her head, curious at the question before nodding as she said, "roundabouts yeah."

Gideon looked directly at her as he asked, "did you recognize me when you started here?"

She took a deep breath before answering, "yes sir. You are one of the people who started the BAU and put profiling on the map as a law enforcement tool."

Gideon shook his head before moving his chair closer to the desk, "that's not what I'm talking about. Did recognize me because we had met previously?"

Emily sighed before saying, "not the first day but I did my first full day with the team."

"Were you planning on saying anything?" Gideon asked as he observed her closely.

Emily looked at him stunned. He knew. They were having the conversation that she hoped would never come but had been expecting since she start. But she wasn't going to give anything away until she was sure. Emily shook her head before she said after putting her hands in her lap, "no. It was a long time ago. What are you really asking, sir?"

"Are you still working in any capacity with the CIA?" Gideon asked.

Emily looked at him, surprise evident on her face briefly before she schooled her features and answered forcefully, "no, I left after my last case with the task force they had assigned me to. I'm done or at least to the extent that any of us are done with them."

Gideon crossed his arms over his chest as he said, "and you're here because…"

Emily answered firmly, "I want to be a profiler. I've always wanted to be a profiler."

Gideon sighed. He couldn't see any deception from her. But that brought him back to the other part of his concern. He turned to her and asked, "what is going on with you and Reid?"

Emily sighed, having expected someone on the team to outright ask one of them at some point instead of the curious looks that had increasingly been getting. There was no way she was telling him the real reason there were inseparable right now. She had promised Spencer and she wasn't breaking that promise. He had been doing well and she didn't want to affect that. So she shook her head and answered, "we're friends. We've been working on a couple of projects together."

"What projects?" Gideon asked, annoyed at her vague answer that knew wasn't the whole truth.

Emily shook her head before answering, "you'll have to ask him."

"I'm asking you." Gideon replied seriously.

Emily huffed before replying, "what we are working on is in our free time and as such I'm not required to report it. If Spencer wanted to talk to you about it, that would be his decision. I've given you mine." Emily answered frustrated at the undertones of the inquiry.

Gideon stood and and paced in the room before saying forcefully, "I don't want him hurt."

Emily looked him in the eye with an intense glare and replied angrily, "neither do I. Are we done here?"

Emily could feel her anger rise. When she had started to tell Gideon is New Orleans he had barked back at her that he knew about Reid. So he knew and did nothing to help him yet he was now he was worried about Reid getting hurt. He was in much more danger back then.

Just as Emily was standing up, Gideon looked at her and said, "one more question - are you working with Bruno Hawks to hurt the BAU?"

Emily stared back at him and crossed her arms in front of her before replying angrily, "what? Bruno Hawks is dead."

Gideon nodded slightly before saying sharply, "yes he is. After a case the BAU solved that saw him arrested. Answer the question Prentiss!"

Emily glared back at him and said bitterly, "no. I don't want to hurt the BAU, I want to be a part of it. And I would never work with Bruno Hawks again. Not with how he screwed me over. I don't like to speak ill of the dead but I hate him. I wish I had never met him."

Gideon stopped and took in what she just in words and emotions. There was obviously a piece or multiple pieces that he was missing here. Pieces that may make some of the evidence he was finding make sense. He sat back down in his chair and while looking up at her he said calmly, "what happened?"

"Have you seen my JTF-12 file?" Emily asked still standing in front of his desk with her arms crossed.

Gideon shook his head before saying, "no not yet."

Emily said, "read the file. It should become very clear why I wouldn't work with Bruno again." before she turned and opened the door and walked out of his office.

As she entered the bullpen, Gideon could see Reid looking at her worried before glancing up at Gideon. When Emily bypassed her desk and went to the break room, Reid followed her. After a couple of minute he saw both of them leave the bullpen and head for the elevators.

Once they were out of sight, he sat back in his chair and went through in his head the conversation he had just had. Now he had more questions than before and no answers. Well, other than while she had been evasive about what she and Reid were doing, she had been telling the truth about everything else.

She wasn't a threat. She just wanted to be part of the BAU.

But now he wanted to find out what Bruno had done to hurt her so badly. As much as he didn't want to admit it, after that case with him the previous year, Gideon wouldn't have put anything past him. Just during that case he had had one of his agents tortured and killed, killed another of his own agents in the CIA under everyone's nose as well as ordered a third agent to kill a man over everyone's objections to protect himself. What else had Bruno been up to that Gideon didn't know about?

According to Prentiss that taskforce file seemed to be where he needed to go to find answers.

And it appeared that he was also going to need to head up to his cabin to get that evaluation.


	8. Chapter 7

**AN: Thanks to everyone who has commented, favorited or followed this story. This chapter is post ep for 2.20- Honor Among Thieves. I hope you enjoy it.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

As soon as he could after returning from Baltimore and finishing his case report, Gideon sat down at his desk and pulled Emily Prentiss' Bureau file out of the top drawer of his desk. When he had looked at her file weeks earlier, he had focused on her job history given his concerns at that time.

But now he looked back at her demographic information. He paged through the file and then when he reached her family history, there it was. She was the granddaughter of his former mentor Alexander Breckinridge. Demographics for the CIA had only included immediate family which is why he didn't know years ago. He would have remember he it had come up back then.

It had been years but had recognized the Ambassador from an introduction years earlier when she had brought her two children to the office to visit her father before they left on an assignment as well pictures and stories over the years of Elizabeth and her family. It had been years and they were both older however he had immediately recognized Elizabeth's voice.

When Gideon first met him, Breckinridge had been head of what was now Counterintelligence at the FBI. Generally he was a quiet yet polite leader that was completely focused on his job.

Until one day, Gideon was shocked as Breckinridge walked through the office handing out cigars and shots of scotch to celebrate the birth of newest grandchild. Looking back at the dates, Gideon noticed that it was Emily's birth that he helped her grandfather celebrate that day.

After that the ice had been broken between the two men and Breckinridge took the young agent under his wing. He said he was going to teach Gideon all he knew however Gideon was sure he only learned a small percentage of the knowledge the older man possessed.

Over games of chess, he would challenge Gideon to think outside the box as well as how to critically evaluate the evidence in front of him. He also shared with Gideon tips on how to read people. These sessions had him looking at his job from a different perspective. Questioning what they thought they knew.

A couple of years later, Breckinridge introduced Gideon to another agent he was also mentoring, David Rossi. That introduction soon led to a close friendship that while currently was strained had lasted for almost 35 years.

The next few years were a blur. Breckinridge transferred to what was now the CIA. Gideon and Dave started working together on building the foundation of what would later be the BAU. Gideon and Dave both still met with Breckinridge though those meetings became increasingly less frequent after both Gideon and Dave married their respective wives and their job responsibilities grew as they advanced within the FBI.

Over time, they had noticed a change in Breckinridge and not for the better. The last few times Gideon had met with him, Breckinridge seemed to be more disillusioned with the job. He had shared with Gideon that his assessment and analyses were increasingly being dismissed because of politics and unfortunate truths. That he was repeatedly watching events happen as he said they would and people were getting hurt and killed. And yet it wasn't changing anything when his next report that reviewed.

Then there was the last straw for him. He had been working on the situation in the Middle East where there were rising tensions. Once again his advice was ignored. Gideon later found out through the grapevine that Breckinridge's son in law had been killed in a bombing at his diplomatic post due to the unrest. His young granddaughter had been forced to fly out alone on what had been one of the only evacuation flights just a few days earlier.

Gideon did eventually talk to Breckinridge however the meeting was short as the older man had just seemed broken. After that as far as anyone knew Breckinridge had just disappeared. No one knew where he and his wife had gone after he retired from the CIA.

It had taken a while for him to get past Breckinridge's sudden absence from his life. To this day, he still didn't know where were older man had gone or even if he was still alive at this point. And due to his own paranoia, the one person who could answer those questions probably wouldn't for him.

Since their meeting a couple of weeks earlier when he essentially questioned her motives, things had been incredibly strained between them.

If he had known her connection to Breckinridge, he would have been more careful when he spoke to her and given her more benefit of the doubt. He would have still looked into her history but would have been more judicious about how he proceed.

But he had been so focused on discovering the extent of her connection to Bruno Hawks that he had ignored one of the first rules that Breckinridge had taught him - look fully at all the information in front of you before coming to a conclusion.

Now he knew he needed take the trip he had been dreading to his cabin to find his copy of her psych evaluation. Perhap she had mentioned in that what had happened to her grandfather.


	9. Chapter 8

**AN: To answer a question from the last chapter – Emily's family is mentioned in chapter 4 of Our Unpredictable Road. She had an older brother who died when he was 6 and she was 3. It was separate from what happened to her father.**

 **Olivia Hopkins will be mentioned in this chapter and she was a character in 1x21-Secrets and Lies**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing**

Gideon sat down and placed his coffee mug on his desk. It was late on a Saturday evening and the bullpen was empty and refreshingly quiet.

He had left his apartment early that morning and made the trek up to his cabin. He was grateful that in the months since he had been up there, it had been undisturbed. Being back at the cabin turned out to not be as mentally taxing as he anticipated. While he was there he decided to complete some needed routine maintenance as well as restocked some supplies.

Once that was done, he went into the basement, unlocked and opened the door to the hidden sealed store room that he had designed and built. As he entered the small room, he unlocked one of the cabinet-sized safes before accessing the drawer that contained the files he needed.

With having a general idea of the approximate date he was looking for, Gideon quickly flipped through the files until he found the one he was looking for. While going through the documents, he saw a few names that piqued his interest and pulled them as well.

As he put them in his box, he looked back at the drawer and after considering it for a moment, he reached in and pulled out all of the psych evaluations that he had done for the CIA.

After removing all of the files in that drawer and put them in a box, he locked the safe before closing the door to the store room and locking that door. Once that was done, he adjusted the panel so that the entrance was again hidden. Gideon had only started to keep these sensitive documents at the cabin after he had completed the security for the cabin as well as the basement.

Now back at the BAU, he pulled out Prentiss' psych evaluation to see what he had written, hoping that he would get some answers to the questions that had been building over the last few months.

In the first section there was some information that gave him some insight into his questions about her grandfather. Without any indication that she had ever named him, Prentiss mentioned that they were very close. She mentioned him as a prominent influence in her life particularly after the death of her father.

She continued on that when visiting him was one of the only times that she was able to relax and truly be a kid instead of what was expected from her as the daughter of diplomats. Gideon sighed as he noted that there wasn't mention of what happened to him either in the evaluation or his handwritten session notes that he had based the report off of.

As he continued reading, the tense relationship that he had witnessed with her mother was described even back then as long standing. Prentiss described few memories of her father and brother which wasn't unexpected given her ages when each died respectively.

She had however described being evacuated right before her father's death. At that point, it had just been her and her father as her mother had taken a position of her own in Eastern Europe after the death of Emily's brother.

She went on to describe the unrest and chaos before leaving to being left in the care of someone she didn't know who promptly left her with officials when they reached the base they were evacuated to in Turkey.

More chaos around her as she waited for hours for her mother to arrive to pick her up before being told her mother wasn't coming. She was then put on another plane with a Marine escort to Ramstein in Germany where her grandparents met her before traveling with her back to DC. She stayed there until after her father's funeral when she then went to live with her mother at her assignment.

Gideon paused as he read that horrific account. Though as he read it, he also began to remember parts of her evaluation years earlier. Not much but there were parts that were sounding familiar to him.

As he continued reading, he was relieved that how he had described her then was very much similar to the agent the team had been working with for months.

...highly intelligent...team player...leadership potential...highly educated…adaptable...determined …thinks outside the box...knowledgeable...overachiever...selfless...stubborn...driven...loyal...seeks out opportunities to challenge herself...

There were some subtle differences however that was expected over time.

He observed that he noted even then that she had the makings of a strong agent. Though he had mentioned in his report that her skill set was better suited for the work she had been doing with the FBI than the CIA. Apparently someone had disagreed with him as her CIA status was pushed though.

With that said, Gideon had written that she would do well doing analysis or field work. However he went on to say that he had serious reservations about her going undercover and did not recommend it as an option.

Given that working undercover in various capacities was routine for a CIA field agent, Gideon noticed that he went into detail about his rationale for his recommendation.

The first point he made was she had an aversion to lying. In his session notes he had written that she had stated that the aversion came from being lied to and about while growing up. For that reason, she did not have the motivation to practice it as a way to improve. Gideon nodded as he remembered overhearing that sentiment from her since she had joined the BAU.

He had gone on to explain that when attempting to lie during a role play exercise, she had been clearly uncomfortable which would make how convincing she would be in these situations questionable. He noted that later when she was able to mask her discomfort, there were still obvious tells.

He then stated that with the confidential nature of undercover work afterwards she would not be able to tell those closest to her about her work which would then require her to continually do what she had clearly stated she hated - to lie.

The next topic that he mentioned was that she had a tendency to overcompensate which he delineated how he found it different than overachieving. He had written that, in his opinion, it came from anxiety and to mask insecurities. In his session notes, he had written several examples as he interviewed her such as education, relationships and needing to prove herself.

He shook his head when he saw that she had told him that her family had been pushing her to be what she described as a socialite and a trophy wife while questioning that she could be successful doing anything else. She had shared with him that she felt like they were just waiting for her to fall flat on her face so that then they could claim victory and push her into following that path instead of what she wanted for her life.

Gideon sighed as he considered that she had also been overcompensating while with the team. Hotch had mentioned it in passing more than once. But given the personal conflict within the team since she had been at the BAU, it wasn't surprising. There had been a lot of tension that he was sure she was reacting to however it seemed that recently, that had diminished.

Gideon sighed and nodded as he read the next topic that he had highlighted. She would have difficulty with decisions when both options were inconsistent with her personal principles. Furthermore he had written that she would not be able to make the decision that would lead to injury or death of a innocent particularly a child even if it was needed to complete the mission. It was his opinion that she would sacrifice herself first.

Gideon went on to read that he thought she would have difficulty with reintegration after if she was to go undercover. He had reference several factors he had already mentioned. Additionally he stated that moving around and learning to become what others expected from her, she hadn't established a strong foundation of self in order to ground herself when coming out of a mission and needed to reestablish herself as Emily Prentiss.

Then the last area was that undercover work involved forming connections with not just their target but to everyone they meet when under. When the mission come to an end they betrayed their target by using the information learned during the mission against the target.

However, in one way or another, they also betray everyone else they met. He read in his session notes that Emily discussed feeling betrayed at times by those around her as they moved from assignment to assignment as well as broken promises of her mother. Gideon had stated in his report that it was his opinion that she would struggle with this aspect of undercover work.

Gideon went on to read what he had written in his conclusions to see if there had been any ambiguity in his analysis or recommendations. But he didn't see any.

He had said that given her focus on helping victims and wanting justice for them she would be better served staying with the FBI. He continued on that he had misgivings about her suitability for mission based assignments. He had clearly stated that he found her unsuitable for undercover in any capacity as given multiple factors she had crossed the threshold of what CIA protocol considered acceptable risks. That there was a strong possibility that if undercover she would intentionally or inadvertently out herself which would risk her, those working closely with her as well as the mission.

As he considered it, Gideon thought back to his discussion with Cooper a few days earlier. Their schedules had finally cooperated after having to reschedule several times. Cooper had initially laughed when Gideon told him who he was looking for information on before saying he had been wondering how long it was going to be before Prentiss had a spot in the BAU. He had gone on to say that he was surprised that Gideon didn't steal her away when she took her profiling courses since Prentiss had told him at one point when they were working together that the BAU was her ultimate goal.

Even having only worked together on a couple of cases when Cooper was with the BAP and Prentiss was with Crimes Against Children, Cooper had immediately remembered her. How he had described her was very similar to what Gideon had written in this evaluation with the main difference coming from Cooper working with her in the field on actual cases v Gideon interviewing her in a clinical environment.

As Cooper finished describing her, he turned serious and asked what were they thinking when they assigned her to JTF-12. He emphatically stated that she did not have the make up of an undercover agent. Shaking his head, he highlighted many of the same concerns Gideon had highlighted in her evaluation.

Cooper described how on a case they both worked with the CIA, Bruno Hawks had first asked about her before approaching her. When Bruno did approach her, Cooper had been close enough to hear Bruno express his interest in her joining his department and her turning him down. After that he had been surprised later to hear she had ended up not only in the CIA but on JTF-12.

Cooper had gone on to share with Gideon that he had been surprised the run into Emily Prentiss as he found out later a couple of weeks after the Doyle case when she returned to DC. He described her at that point as a ghost of the agent he had known previously. After that interaction, Cooper told him he had used his security clearance to get information on the work of the taskforce she had been working with.

He went on that he had first heard about the taskforce by reputation while he was doing psych ops in Europe. Cooper said that the team had been successful for much of the time they were together before having a couple of issues with cases. However it was the last case they worked, the case where Prentiss was undercover that permanently broke the team and they were disbanded. As far as he could determine, there had been improper conduct within the team but he hadn't been able to find out specifically what happened or who was involved.

Having heard that Gideon hadn't gotten the file on that case, Cooper said that a lot of his questions would be answered by looking at the case file. With Cooper being the second person to say that Gideon was very curious yet apprehensive about what he was going to find when he finally read it.

For now, he needed to put that aside. The file was requested and last he heard, on the way. For now, he focused on the his other questions. Why the evaluation was deleted and who had done it? Why was Prentiss sent undercover when his assessment should have made her ineligible?

Gideon looked down at the other files he had brought from his cabin. Leaning over, he went through the stack until he found the one he was looking for - Olivia Hopkins.

When the team was working the case at the CIA the previous year, he had noticed some irregularities in Olivia's file. He hadn't gotten too far into investigating it as he had been focused on that case and planned on pursuing it afterwards. However with Olivia's death during the case and Bruno's arrest then subsequent death as well as his own caseload, Gideon hadn't followed through.

However in hindsight that had been a mistake. Olivia's murder itself during the case had been a red flag. They had treated it as such in the aspect of finding the person who killed Summers but neglected completing the victimology on Olivia herself.

It had been nagging at him then as it didn't seem to make sense was what knowledge did have Olivia that led her to do the searches on Bruno's finances in the first place. Now made it look as if Olivia knew something Bruno didn't want to risk being revealed.

Then there was what prompted Bruno go looking for her while she was performing those searches. He had cut power to the surveillance cameras in that area which would indicate premeditation and/or tying up loose ends.

This revelation made him wonder more about Prentiss' comments in their meeting about hating and wishing she had never met him. Did whatever happened to her prompt her to return to the Midwest to work when she rejoined the FBI and that she only applied to come to DC after Bruno's death?

As he sat at his desk going over the case at the CIA, Gideon thought back to another of Bruno's statements as he was being arrested-

 _Olivia was looking into your financial records when you snapped her neck. So she knew your dirty little secret._

 _Which one? I have so many._

What were Bruno's other secrets?

Did he have a role in Prentiss going undercover on this particular case? And if so why and to what end? Given that she had suggested he read the file when he brought up Bruno, his gut told him he was on the right track.

Now as he looked down at the box of files he brought back from his cabin, he needed to see if there were any other agents that fit similar parameters. Maybe then he learn the extent of what Bruno was doing. And how many other agents were affected.


	10. Chapter 9

**AN: Huge apologies for how long it has taken me to update this story. After this chapter there will be three more chapter to finish off this story. The next chapter is almost done and I will post it Monday at the latest.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing**

 **TW for this chapter: mentions of violence and being held involuntarily. There is also a section where pictures are described where violence, assault, sexual assault, and restraints are implied to have occurred.**

Gideon sighed and pushed back from his desk. Standing up, he walked over to the coffee pot and refilled his mug. As he sipped his coffee, he stared back at the piles of files on his desk. Files that he should be working on completing.

However he had the Doyle file for almost a week now and he needed to actually review it. Both Cooper and Prentiss had indicated that the answers he wanted were in the file and from both of their reactions, he expected that there would be irregularities. He had started down this path - researching, asking questions and now he needed to see it through.

Opening the file, the first topic he looked at was the profile the team had formed about the Valhalla network and specifically about Doyle himself. As the undercover, Prentiss would have had the greatest input from the taskforce in forming the profile that they would pass onto the other agencies that made the arrests.

It didn't happen often but Gideon blanched as he read the official profile on Ian Doyle.

Power assertive psychopath. Controlling. Very explosive when things don't go as expected. Ruthless. Entitled. Uses force to gain compliance particularly over resistance. Impulsive. Arrogant.

While that was what was in the report he knew from his experience as a profiler what was between the lines of what was written there.

As he went on he turned to the information on all previous efforts which was sizable as there were several. Initially attempts were made using male undercover to infiltrate the network. Each ended with the agent either unable to get close enough to discover any useful information and then pulled or found suspicious by the paranoid Valhalla leadership and killed.

As Gideon read on, he saw that they changed tactics after that. Then there had been two attempts before JTF-12 to infiltrate female agents as love interests for Ian Doyle as he was found to be the easiest target within the Valhalla network. Research had shown that he was a person of interest for them within Valhalla, had a specific type and had a history with dozens of women.

The first attempt made by a female agent had started well. She had been able to catch Ian Doyle's eye. That mission had gone forward until Doyle's wandering eyes resulted in the undercover agent losing favor with him and thus her access to Doyle and the network. Unfortunately the length of time she had been undercover hadn't been long enough to gain much in the way of useful intelligence.

Unable to go further, the Valhalla case went to another agency and another team. They also sent in a female undercover agent again as a love interest for Ian Doyle. And again this agent had also caught his eye.

Gideon shook his head as he read that this attempt overcorrected in having this mission include the agent not only a love interest but also asking questions. Questions that most likely led to her death. Her body had been found on the side of the road with a bullet wound through the head two weeks into the mission.

While they didn't know what exactly prompted someone in the Valhalla network to kill her, they did gleam enough from earlier check ins that they were on the right track with focusing on Ian Doyle.

After that is when the mission came to JTF-12. However before that there had been a great deal of disagreement about whether another attempt should be made to take down Valhalla by infiltrating an undercover agent given what had happened during all past attempts.

Ultimately it was decided that one last attempt would be made by JTF-12. The team considered the best and brightest. If they could not accomplish the mission than another approach would need to be sought that did not involve infiltration.

As he continued on, Gideon looked over the operational plan formulated for the mission. In terms of undercover missions, it appeared straightforward, at least in theory.

The mission was for the undercover to enter the local weapons detailing network and make contact with the Valhalla network with the goal being getting close enough to catch Ian Doyle's eye. Once contact was made, the undercover would then talk, flirt and use other nonsexual strategies to hold his attention while trying to sell him weapons.

The mindset was given his profile he would continue to pursue the undercover if denied sex as he would see it as a challenge and perhaps in the pursuit reveal something that he wouldn't otherwise. It was felt this approach would lengthen the amount of time for them to be able to gain intelligence from not only Doyle but also those around him.

Once an agreement was made on weapons purchases, the undercover would make a set number of deliveries of weapons. All weapons would be marked so that the Valhalla network would be mapped as it distributed the weapons throughout the network.

As much as a snake Ian Doyle had shown himself to be, they knew taking only him out would do little good. No they needed map the network. They needed to be able to target and take down as much of it was possible at the same time to truly eliminate it.

Once they had gotten the intelligence they needed and made the last delivery, the undercover's alias would be reported in the media as killed in an auto accident the day before the simultaneous raids were done, taking down the entire network. The undercover would then be shielded in a safe house until it was considered safe for them to leave.

The information gathered on where the network was sending the weapons was also expected to aid in other cases in multiple countries. It was the potential from this approach for intelligence that cause the decision to make one last attempt at infiltration.

 **####**

Turning to the next section, Gideon started reading about the members of JTF-12. Other than Prentiss, there were three men and one woman which included one German national, one French national, one Brit and one Scot. All had experience with intelligence agencies in their home country and/or Interpol.

He also noted that Prentiss hadn't been the first US representative to that team. On JTF-12's first mission that agent, Josie Winters, had been killed. It was a few weeks later that Bruno recommended Prentiss and she was accepted onto the team.

On paper it was an impressive group that had been lauded as the best and the brightest. They had closed a number of difficult cases for various agencies throughout Europe from what he could see from the summary in the file.

And then came the case involving Ian Doyle. The last case that team would work as JTF-12. After looking at the information on the other members of JTF-12, Gideon turned to the reports filed by the team after the case and well as their debriefs.

From all the information gathered during the debrief process after the case it appeared that there were questionable occurrence happening as early as when they were doing their research and preparation for the mission.

What first struck him was that Emily wasn't the initial agent lined up to go undercover on this mission. The other woman on the team, Tsia Mosley was slanted to go. However, a few days before she was due to make contact, she had become incredibly ill and was hospitalized. The final report stated that it was an illness that the medical staff hadn't been able to diagnosis and shortly after Prentiss went undercover, Mosley was discharged from the hospital without any long term effects.

After the hospital staff reported that she would not be available at the contact date, the file described debate and disagreement about how and if to go forward.

The options discussed were to scrap the mission entirely, wait for Mosley to recover and start from scratch or go forward with another undercover. The wait approach was quickly discounted given the investment of time and resources planning a mission involved. The file didn't give much in the way of information who wanted that option, why and the reason it was nixed.

The decision to go forward with another undercover was not without its challenges. With Prentiss also matching Doyle's type as well as her place on the team made her the first choice. However, Prentiss' role on the team wasn't supposed to include undercover.

The documentation that Prentiss apparently balked at agreeing to the role which surprised Gideon given what he knew of the agent. He then began to wonder what wasn't in the file that caused that reaction.

It was at that point that a member of JTF-12 Clyde Easter got Bruno involved. There wasn't much documented after that until they had the team prepping her to go undercover.

A glaring oversight for Gideon was that the profile that they were using for the alias of Lauren Reynolds wasn't updated from Mosley to Prentiss which at least for the CIA was SOP. Given the difficulty of the mission itself as well as the known suspicions of Valhalla it could have been a deadly mistake.

When Gideon looked over the cover sheet for Lauren Reynolds most of the errors were small. However there was one area that if challenged would have immediately blown Prentiss' cover. Lauren Reynolds was listed as being Belgian specifically from Antwerp in the Flanders region. While Prentiss had an impressive list of languages she had fluency in, unlike Tsia Mosley, neither Dutch nor Flemish was on the list.

Why would they send an agent not just undercover but infiltrating when she didn't speak the native language for the country that her cover was from? With how many failed attempts teams had had with this organization and how suspicious Valhalla had showed themselves to be why have such a breach on such a basic topic?

As he read the reports on the actual mission, it appeared that at least at the beginning, the mission proceed as expected. Prentiss went in as Lauren Reynolds. After establishing herself in that identity, she later made first contact with the Valhalla network which quickly lead her to her first one-on-one meeting with Ian Doyle at a bar in Boston.

That meeting turned into more meetings that finally lead to what they were anticipating - an agreement for weapons sales.

As time went on Prentiss was passing along information she had learned during check ins. The first weapons sale went without a hitch as did the next few.

But then irregularities started to happen or at least became obvious in the written record after she requested cutting the length of the mission given Doyle's growing obsession with her. He had started trying to restrict her movements and interactions, complicating her role.

Then there was no intelligence reported back from some of Prentiss' check ins though she stated later during the debrief that she did pass on the information. When confronted during their own debriefs the others in question denied that she had reported the information when she met with them.

Then Sean MacAllister was suddenly pulled away from the case to follow another lead. It was shortly after that during one of their last weapons sales that Prentiss had been forced to make the decision to go deeper when challenged by Doyle and one of his lieutenants. After that, Doyle had completely closed her off from the outside, not allowing her to leave one of his compounds.

When MacAllister realized that there was something off about the reason he was called away, he had immediately returned to the rest of the team only to find out Prentiss had missed two check ins with a third missed the next day. He stated later in the debrief that it was later he found out she was being held by Doyle. The debriefs had the team members use confusion to explain the lapse with MacAlliaster's sudden absence and the change from Mosley to Prentiss.

There had been a debate on the team at that point if she was being held against her will or if she had turned and was there voluntarily. MacAllister had shut them all down saying they were going to follow protocol. Protocol at this point was to exfiltrate then make that determination though he never questioned Prentiss' loyalty.

As they worked with the police to plan it, they discovered that the extended length of time Prentiss had been held had given Doyle time to move them to another compound. In Italy specifically Tuscany that they hadn't known about previously.

The move had changed jurisdictions. Without the research done on the location, they had to quickly map out the location as they planned on how to enter. Even more worrisome was while Doyle and others were spotted in their surveillance, Prentiss was not. Not until one day. And with that sighting, they went in while they had eyes on her.

But her exfiltration didn't end the drama for this case. After Prentiss' debrief and hospital stay, she was granted permission to stay at the protected safe house to give her time to recover while the investigation continued. For an unknown reason at the time, she changed plans and went off the grid. Thia action had prompted some of the others to question her motivation given what happened next.

There had only been a small number of people who knew the location of the safe house and because she was being debriefed when it was decided, even Prentiss didn't know of the location.

The safe house was supposed to keep her safe if she had gone there however later the same night she was supposed to arrive it was attacked by some of Doyle's men and the guards there were tortured and killed.

With this unsettling development, the initial plan of killing the alias of Lauren Reynolds was followed through while various agencies worked to round up the rest of Valhalla.

When, weeks later, Prentiss re established contact and found out what happened, she quickly slipped out of Europe and back to DC to try to put the pieces of Emily Prentiss back together before learning the contents of the final report for the case.

After reading over the reports about the case, Gideon understood Cooper's concerns about that team. After the investigation following the case, only Prentiss and MacAllister were cleared of wrongdoing. There were a string of breaks in protocol and inconsistencies in their statements during the debriefs that didn't allow the other three to be cleared. Whether one, two, or all three were involved in wrongdoing and/or a coverup wasn't able to be discerned.

 **####**

The final section of the file contained pictures taken during the case. The first group were surveillance pictures taken of Prentiss making weapons deliveries at various times as noted by different backgrounds and clothing by those present.

From the pictures, there seemed to be at least seven separate deliveries that she made. From these pictures, Gideon was able to pick out when she was confronted by Doyle and one of his lieutenants and then whisked away to be held at his compound.

The next groups was surveillance pictures of the house and grounds of that compound along with another compound in Italy where she was eventually extracted from. The pictures included movements of various people. There were none of Prentiss at the first compound and none at the second until the day she was exfiltrated.

That made sense since they hadn't known about the second house and therefore they didn't know the layout. They would want to confirm her presence and actual location before moving in to make arrests so she could be escorted out as quickly as possible.

When he turned to the next section, it was the pictures that must have been taken after the raid of the compound. As he paged through them it appeared in what was initially thought to be a wine cellar, they found a weapons cache.

The next group of pictures showed what he knew from his experience as a profiler as a torture room. The implements. A chair bolted to the floor surrounded by large drains. Stains on the same floor that laboratory analysis confirmed to be blood.

Turning away from the pictures of that room, he next looked at the pictures from a room with multiple screens bolted to a wall. It wasn't the security room for the house. Not sure what to make of it. His first impression was that it reminded him of what they found with Henkel when Reid was kidnapped. Then the similarity was further confirmed when one of the pictures showed cameras with long range AV capabilities on a shelf in the room.

As Gideon thought back, he remembered that it was on the plane ride home from Georgia that he picked up Prentiss' tell of finger tapping. Had she noticed the similarities as well? Did she witness something in that room during her time undercover? Something that because of her position she was powerless to stop? And like Reid had she been forced to make an impossible decision?

Gideon shook his head but could see that he was nowhere near done with the thick stack of pictures. The next group of pictures was of a room painted dark with a large bed in the middle. Subsequent pictures of the bed showed multiple metal rings attached to the frame at both the head and foot that he knew from experience were used for restraints.

He stopped stunned when he paged to the next one showing a beautiful hand carved wood cabinet in the same room. Once opened the beauty of the cabinet diminished as the horror of the various implements it contained was revealed. The next few pictures showed more rings throughout the room for restraints as well as a grid track on the ceiling that had a hook attached.

The next group of pictures were of staff and crew rooms none of which were remarkable.

Then the pictures were of a child's bedroom and a playroom which seemed very out of place based on what else he had seen in the house. As he looked back at the reports, he noticed that the only child in the house was a little boy who was the son of the housekeeper. He nodded but before he could continue on he stopped himself.

Something did not seem right about this whole scenario. Scratch that. There was a lot that was off about this case but there was just something about the picture of the young child that was staring back at him. How did this little boy get dragged this compound? And why was his and the housekeeper's rooms close to Doyle's instead of with the rest of the staff?

The last pictures he had of the house were of the master bedroom. Again this room had rings attached to the bed frame that still had restraints attached to them.

He stopped stunned when he turned from the pictures of the house to those taken at the hospital of Prentiss. For the first few, it didn't register for him that it was her as it was pictures of the back of her body.

After seeing those pictures there was no longer any questions in his mind about why she had been taken to the hospital after her exfiltration.

Cuts and bruises at various stages of healing over her entire body. Except for her face. Ligature marks on her wrists and ankles. Hand shaped bruises on both of her hips. Welts and markings over her back.

As soon as he realized who it was in the pictures he closed the file not wanting to see anymore. Although Prentiss suggested he look at the file these intimate pictures of her body felt an invasion of her privacy.

He stood up and walked over to his coffee pot as he processed what he had just read. He now understood Cooper's concerns and Prentiss' anger.

As he stood there, he looked out the window into the bullpen and saw her sitting at her desk focused on the file in front of her. As he watched her, he couldn't help but feel somewhat responsible for what happened. While the logical part of his brain was telling him that he did his job on doing her eval another part of him was saying that it wasn't enough because she still ended up in a situation that she shouldn't have been.

As he considered that he hoped that she had sought help, professional help to work past the experience. Though with the classification of the mission, it was difficult.

Just then he noticed Morgan say something and Prentiss smiled and turned around to respond. He continued to watch them as Reid joined the conversation.

Reid.

Another agent who he had been concerned about after Georgia but recently seemed to be doing much better. As he watched as they talked animatedly for several minutes, Gideon felt some of the tension leave his body.

After thinking about what he learned, he wanted to talk to her again if she was open to the conversation. This time he would be open minded and listen to her. But either way he knew he needed to make it up to her his role in what happened.


	11. Chapter 10

**AN: Here is the next chapter. TW for brief mentions of torture and rape.**

Gideon sat at his desk with a cup of coffee late one evening. The rest of the team had already headed home. It had been a few days since he had finished reading JTF-12 and the Doyle mission.

He was still processing everything that he read. He wanted to talk to Prentiss about what he had discovered but couldn't decide on how to approach her after how poorly he had handled their last meeting.

As he had been processing what he learned he considered Bruno's role in her assignment. Looking through the list of agents that he had done psych evals on he found a significant percentage that had the evals removed from their CIA permanent file. Given that it was never supposed to happen, even one was concerning. But what he had found was far from one and thus problematic and intentional.

Focusing on the files of those agents with missing psych evals, Gideon also found a troubling trend. While there were several who had straightforward work histories, there were a greater percentage that were either killed or had some type of mishap in the field.

After Bruno was arrested and later died, an investigation of his financial assets and connections was done. In the file was also a copy of the interview done on Hassan before he went to prison. He explained about his role in Summers' death as well as his links to Bruno.

Using this information as a guide, Gideon went back through the work histories of all the agents that had the psych evals removed from their files. He compared the work histories of those agents to the list of Bruno's connections.

Then as he looked at everything through the len of a profiler, a troubling pattern began to come into focus. Bruno had been using assignments of these agents to further his own interests primarily.

He had agents unwittingly in situations that no agent should be asked to be in not because of security issues of the US but for personal reasons. In situations that he needed to assign an agent without drawing unwanted attention, he had chosen agents who would be easier to control. His reckless behavior had resulted not just in the death of several agents in the field but also kidnappings, rape, torture and well as suicides after they were out of the field.

For instance that appears to be what happened to Olivia. According to the expanded file that Elle hadn't had access to during the case in the CIA, Olivia was assigned to a case where one of Bruno's interests were. She was undersupported in her role and ended up being kidnapped by a rival gang. Attempts to extricate her were delayed as it would have compromised Bruno's interests until she was moved to a different location. It was then that the CIA went in to pull her out. However by that point, she had already been held for several days and had been tortured and raped.

The experience had resulted in her being removed from the field as well as the breakdown of her marriage that included losing custody of her two children. What was unique about Olivia was that after she was pulled from the field, Bruno offered her a management position in the CIA.

That combined with her actions during the Summers case in being the one to immediately look into Bruno made it appear at some point Olivia had put the pieces together. Did he give her the position to keep her quiet or to keep her close? Ultimately it was that knowledge that got her killed.

 **####**

It was several days later and Gideon was closing the last file. After going through all of the files and cross referencing he was done.

This was a project that he would have loved to have had Reid's help with however there was no way he could do that. First Reid didn't have the clearance to look at some of the files. But most importantly, he wanted to protect Prentiss from anyone from the team finding out about this part of her career. At least from him.

He and Bruno had fallen out of touch over the years but he didn't know what had happened to him to compromise all of these agents. What made him believe that his personal benefit was more important that his oath. They had served together in the military and since starting this investigation he had been thinking back to that time. To their interactions since to try to determine if he had missed something in Bruno's psychology.

It bothered him that none of those memories were giving him the answers he needed.

But now that Gideon had most of the answers he had been searching for when he started investigating, he needed to decide what he wanted to do about it. Ignoring it wasn't an option as that would make him part of the problem.

However, he also needed to tread carefully as some affected were still active agents. They had already been hurt and he didn't want to hurt them again. But he couldn't ignore that the CIA needed to do an internal investigation of what happened and the protocols that were breached to allow it to happen in the first place.

So after consideration, he gathered copies of all his research and notes. He focused primarily on the agents who had been killed or had left after being pulled from the field explaining what his research showed for each of them. That would give the CIA a place to start while not mentioning agents who were still active. He was sure that an investigation would get there once they looked at who had missing psych evals.

In addition to preparing the information for the CIA director he also prepared a copy for the Director of National Intelligence and the DOJ.

He wouldn't let this be ignored anymore.

 **AN: The next chapter will be the conversation between Gideon and Prentiss that happened after Gideon found her at the BAU at the end of Highs and Lows, Part 1 in Our Unpredictable Road. I'm still writing it and will post as soon as it's done.**


	12. Chapter 11

**AN: The conversation in this chapter is the one that happened when chapter 21(Two Weeks, Part 1) of Our Unpredictable Road ends. It is the second to last chapter for this story. The last chapter is almost done and I plan to post it by the end of the week.**

 **TW for this chapter - illusions to domestic violence, assault**

"Gideon" Emily said surprised as Gideon had been gone since they returned from Flagstaff.

After standing in the doorway he had walked into the conference room, closing the door behind him before walking over and sitting across from her at the table. As he did, he looked over the the documents she was working on before looking at her quizzically before asking, "Hotch?"

Emily sighed as she saw the paperwork in front of her was generally completed by the Unit Chief. Looking over at him, she answered, "his suspension will be over in a couple of days. I'm getting this paperwork signed off so he isn't inundated as soon as he gets back."

Gideon looked down at the table sadly knowing that the decisions he had made in Flagstaff were partially responsible for his suspension, "he'll appreciate that."

Emily looked up at him and saw him carefully observing her. Since she started working with him, she had seen him do it to other people. However, for her, it was somewhat unnerving. As she felt his eyes on her, she quickly determined what it was about. He had done what she had suggested. Looking at him directly she stated, "You read the file."

There was no need to clarify what file she was referring to as they both knew. "Yes." Gideon answered.

Emily could feel her anxiety rise. She had wondered if he had during the case in Flagstaff because even with all that he was dealing with, he had seemed to be treating her differently. At the time she thought it was just her imagination but apparently it wasn't.

She didn't want anyone she worked with to know what happened during that case. Perhaps it was good that she was already planning to give Hotch her resignation as soon as he returned.

She didn't have too much time to analyze the situation before he asked, "do you mind if I ask some questions? Even with reading the file, I found that I still have questions particularly with my role with the CIA and the doubts I already had about Bruno."

Emily sighed as thought about the question. Did she really want to dredge all of it up when she had been working for two years to put the experience in a box? Should she tell him about the inquires for that team recently? Should she tell him about Declan? After thinking for several minutes, she nodded.

Because the rest of the JTF-12 team was still out there though in different roles, the first question he asked was, "do you know or suspect who betrayed you while you were undercover?"

Emily sighs because as a profiler, she thought that she should have seen signs from whoever it was before they even got to the Doyle case. She had to keep reminding herself that all of them were profilers too. But even today, after knowing that there was at least one she was embarrassed to admit that she still wasn't able to confidently identify who it was. "I wish I did but not for sure. Well other than Bruno but you found out the illegal activities he was involved with during that case you worked at the CIA."

"But you have an idea." Gideon stated as he observed her.

Emily nodded and sighed before answering, "it's complicated. From what happened during that case and what I read in the case report and the debriefings, it could be any of them other than Sean. I do trust that Sean wasn't involved in whatever was going on with the others."

She stopped and looked around the room as she had not revealed to anyone what she was about to say to Gideon. "The problem is that the more I've considered it, the more that it seems to be more than one of them. Some of the inconsistencies don't point to one person."

Gideon nodded as he had wondered the same as he had read the reports and debriefings. While he had asked the question, her answer was disconcerting, "that certainly complicates things."

"Yes, since Clyde is now with Interpol while Tsia and Jeremy are back with their respective countries' intelligence agencies." Emily answered

Gideon saw the difficult position she was now in with not being able to identify any of them and because of that they were able to resume their lives. Changing the topic slightly, he asked, "have you talked to them since the case ended?"

Emily sighed before nodding as she answered, "not by my choice. Over the last few months, Clyde was trying to get in touch with me. After I ignored him, Jeremy ambushed me outside the bar when I was meeting JJ and Garcia. Luckily it was before they arrived but they did walk up while we were still talking."

"Did you introduce them?" Gideon asked concerned not just for Emily but for the team as well.

Emily shook her head, "no but he knew they were with me."

"What did he want?" Gideon asked curious if the reason could clear up the question of who on that team was dirty.

Emily sighed before explaining, "they are still questioning Doyle and Jeremy came at Clyde's request to ask if I knew anything else that wasn't in the reports that the interrogators could use. Or at least that was the premise for the request. Clyde knows better than to come himself. Since then Tsia has also approached me with the same inquiry."

Given how her answer was phrased, Gideon stated, "given what's happened you don't trust that it is their true intention for requesting information."

"No." Emily quickly answered.

Gideon observed her before stating, "but you do have information." He paused and noticed her starting to pick at her nails before continuing, "I'll take that as a yes."

 **####**

"Do you know why were you chosen for that team?" Gideon asked wanting to know her interpretation of led to Bruno assigning her to that task force.

Emily sighed and sat quietly for a couple of minutes as she gathered her thoughts of how to explain both why she was chosen as well as her reluctance to take the role before looking at him as she started, "as you know my childhood wasn't typical. While I was born here in DC, I spent most of my childhood at various diplomatic postings throughout Europe and the Middle East. Even now, my mother is taking a new position in Eastern Europe."

She paused and took a deep breath before continuing, "as with anything, that upbringing comes with benefits and risks. I stayed with my mother until the last couple of years of high school and then came back to the US for boarding school. But even after that I was still required to attend certain social events in various countries as well as in the US, mostly DC and New York City.

I have been introduced to hundreds if not thousands of people over the years. My mother kept pictures of me in the residence of wherever is stationed as well as on her desk to give off the impression of a happy family as well as she has mentioned several times that she was taken more seriously when people discovered she had a child.

In many ways doing that amount of networking is beneficial. And if I had chosen just about any other career path, it would have been. But I chose the career path that I did. So when I was approached about first the CIA and then JTF-12 with undercover particularly infiltration being components it brings in a new layer of complexity to the situation. Thus the risks of my upbringing."

After pausing, Emily continued, "many of the people I've met at these events over the years have been lovely dedicated diplomats. While it isn't work that I strive for or was in any way interested in doing myself I don't hold ill-will against those who do. With that said there have also been a fair amount of scumbags of various shades as well over the years. But that is politics. You are going to get a certain number of scumbags when there is money and power involved.

Gideon started to nodded as he saw where this was going.

"While I was with Crimes Against Children, we worked on a couple of cases with an international component. One of them was human trafficking focused on Eastern Europe. So my partner and I were on our way to meet a buyer and see where they were keeping the girls in preparation for the bust when we were sent the pictures of the participants who had just entered the building where we were going to meet. One of them was someone I had met at a party a year earlier. If he would have recognized me we would have been made, compromising both my partner and I. The girls we were trying to rescue would have been in immediate danger. It could have blown the entire case.

"What did you do?" Gideon asked curiously.

Emily sighed before saying, "called and explained that I recognized one of them and how. They pulled me and sent in another agent who was backup at the scene. It was after that case that Bruno came back to me about CIA. It was still fresh in my mind and that along with other factors is why I initially said no to the CIA. However Bruno kept coming back to me and I now regret not sticking with my gut on my first answer.

When I was offered JTF-12, I was honored given the reputation of the team. However, what happened on that Crimes Against Children case was constantly on my mind as I weighed whether or not to accept it. As I looked over their first couple of cases, they were working in the areas that my mother had been stationed.

Initially I said no. I wanted to be an FBI profiler. A position on the taskforce wasn't going to help with that goal given that there would be limits about what could be in my file afterwards. It wasn't until after the team disbanded that I learned that the whole assignment would be classified and they were writing a backstop for me.

Additionally, it was too much of a risk not just to the taskforce or cases that we would working but also to my mother and stepfather. While we aren't close, if I was made during one of these cases not only would I be in danger. The criminals involved would know who my family was and in some cases would have a direct line to my mother and/or stepfather or at least be able to get access. Like for most people family was where our vulnerabilities are. It is where they could hurt me the most. I couldn't put my family in that kind of danger particularly with not being able to talk about it and give warnings if needed.

However my no was countered with being on JTF-12 doing analysis and also some field work. I wasn't supposed to do undercover or infiltration.

Gideon scoffed and then grumbled, "well from my psych eval, you shouldn't have been during undercover or infiltration regardless. Bruno ignored it to even have you as an option for that task force." before pausing briefly before continuing, "did you recognize someone you had met before come up during any of their cases?"

Emily nodded and then answered, "a matter of fact yes. It was a different weapons dealing case we worked on in Eastern Europe. It was someone that we came across and I had pulled some background information on when we weren't really getting anywhere with the case. They were talking about pulling Jeremy, who was undercover, out. Most of the team wanted to just call it and pull him so we could move on. But with the information I had we identified him. After that the case moved forward and a few weeks later the local agency went in to make arrests and we moved onto the next case."

Gideon nodded as he saw how the experience could be helpful in doing analysis. However he wasn't sure yet exactly what it was but something she just said about that team wasn't sitting right with him. Putting that aside for the moment, he asked, "what happened with the Doyle mission that had you being the one to infiltrate then?"

Emily nodded before saying, "As we were prepping for the mission, Tsia became very sick. Her illness occurred close to the day she was set to connect as Lauren Reynolds." She paused and shook her head before saying, "she was definitely sick. Really sick but as you saw as well there was never a determination of cause. It is part of my conflict as to who to trust. Did she make herself sick or did someone else on the team do it because we were at the point in the mission where we had isolated ourselves so she hadn't been around anyone outside the team for over two days? If someone else made her sick, it would have been someone else from that team."

Gideon nodded as he asked, "that explains why she couldn't go but how did you go instead?"

Emily continued, "after she was admitted to the hospital there was a push to drop the case. It wasn't a new argument. Ever since Sean brought the case to the team, there had been pushback. But the higher ups vetoed dropping the case. They wanted one more attempt at infiltration.

That is when Clyde pushed for me instead of someone outside the team citing I was already familiar with it and could get up to speed quicker. I said no way. I had a bad feeling about it and it was a weapons dealing case earlier where I had recognised someone. Considering how extensive they theorized the Valhalla network was, there were increased risks in the exact area that was of concern when I was assigned to JTF-12. Later the same day, I got a call from Bruno after Clyde contacted him pushing for me to take the assignment. Reneging on the agreement we had. I did agree to do it though the bad feeling just increased."

They were both quiet before Gideon asked about another aspect of the file that he wondered about. "The file said you wanted to be pulled out."

Emily tensed as she nodded before answering, "yes."

She paused and took a few deep breaths before continuing as they were slowly getting into the details of the actual case, "the approach we used was good at keeping him interested and me close enough to gather intelligence as well as getting the weapons we needed into their network.

However, over time Doyle grew annoyed with the limits I had in what I would do with him. He knew what he wanted. What he expected from me.

In some ways it helped in gathering intelligence as his focus was on what he wanted from me instead of his usual suspicion of everyone around him. But that came with a price.

He increasingly became more possessive. Wanting to know where I was, what I was doing, who I was seeing. It started to make checking ins more challenging.

Then he didn't want me dealing weapons as a seller to anyone else but him. He said he wanted us to get married but I told him I wasn't the marrying type. He showed up at my fake apartment one day and while there started to go through my stuff. I found him sabotaging my birth control pills yelling that they were a sin.

After that I wanted out. We had gotten several shipments of weapons into the network. I had gotten a good deal of intelligence, more than anyone else. But they wanted me to stay and deliver the last two shipments of weapons.

It was that next shipment, the second to last one that Doyle drew his line in the sand. I had to make a decision at that point to go deeper and wait for my team to pull me out or be left on the side of the road with a bullet in my head like what happened to the previous undercover."

She paused and Gideon could see that telling him what happened was becoming more difficult as they went on. He wasn't going to push her past her comfort level but was going to listen to everything that she was willing to share.

He patiently waited until she continued, "once at his compound, he had made it clear that I wasn't permitted to leave. He had already said he didn't want me doing business with anyone else so he didn't agree to let me leave for that reason.

Immediately, there was a shift in interactions. He wanted what he wanted. He was used to it because of his role and didn't accept not getting his way. From anyone."

"What did he want from you?" Gideon asked gently.

Emily shook her head before looking at him and stating, "for me not to try and leave. Sex. Marriage. Children. For us to raise a family of warriors together that he could pass the empire he was building to."

Gideon managed to internalize the gasp at her statement before asking, "what happened?"

Emily sighed before answering, "the second day there when I tried to leave to go back to my apartment he became angry and showed me what happens when I didn't follow his instructions."

As she paused Gideon could see her getting lost in her head at the memories. Before he lost her, he asked, "the bruises?"

She nodded at the question but kept her gaze downward before quietly adding, "and the ligature marks."

She stayed quietly after that before taking a few deep breaths before looking at him and continuing, "he also kept pushing marriage, becoming enraged at my reluctance. I did agree but that wasn't until after he moved us to Italy just a couple of days before I was exfiltrated. My agreement in marrying him was the reason he allowed me to go outside that day when previously I was restricted to certain areas of the house."

"And a baby. You mentioned that he sabotaged your birth control." Gideon asked hesitantly, not sure at this point if he was really prepared for what answer she would give him.

Emily looked down at the table as she quietly answered, "yes. I told Sean on my next check in about him showing up at the apartment and finding him sabotaging my birth control." She paused before looking over at him with glassy eyes before continuing, "the bright spot on that aspect of the mission was when I picked up the next weapons shipment after that check in to deliver to Doyle, Sean snuck in and injected a dose of Depo for me. I was exfiltrated shortly before the shot ran out."

 **####**

Emily looked across the table at him and said, "it took a while but I have accepted that I wasn't supposed to come out of Doyle's compound, at least not alive. It was going to be the last attempt so at least one person wanted the JTF-12 attempt to fail."

Gideon sighed as he had reached the same conclusion as he had read the file, "I agree. From everything I read from the reports to the debriefings to what you mentioned, that sounds like a logical conclusion. The question is why."

Emily shrugged before answering, "without knowing who, I don't think answering why is possible. At least not for sure."

"Well Bruno was definitely involved. His list of misdeeds came to light after he was arrested." Gideon added.

Emily nodded before saying, "yes, I long suspected him though when I heard about his arrest I thought that he wanted someone on the task force so he could follow what cases we were working. Keep track so he would know if we were getting too close to his interests."

Gideon sighed, "I believe that is exactly what he was doing from other research I've done. When Agent Winters was killed, he needed another agent to fill that role for him."

 **####**

"Is that why you are planning to leave the team?" Gideon asked as he closely observed her.

"What? How?" Emily answered surprised before looking at the person she was talking to and realizing she should have expected that he would figure out her plan. Nodding, she answered, "it factored into the decision but it isn't the main reason. I found out recently that I'm not here because of my abilities. I didn't know that when I started or I wouldn't have taken the position. Now that person wants me to do something that will hurt the team if I want to stay."

"So you are leaving instead." Gideon stated.

Emily sighed before nodding as she answered, "I'm keeping the control of my life that I can so yes."

Gideon sighed as he thought about what she said before answering, "promise me something."

Emily looked at him skeptically before stating, "I will if I can."

Gideon nodded before saying, "I know you can't talk about this case with most people even if you wanted to. If you run into trouble and need help, contact me or contact Sam Cooper." as he handed her a business card.

"He knows?" Emily questioned.

Gideon nodded as he answered, "yes. He's read the file too and knows that something went on within that team. He'll support you too."

"OK"

Gideon stood up and while looking at her stated, "take care of yourself. Regardless of what was said to have you doubting your abilities, you belong on this team."

"Thanks Gideon." Emily said as she watched Gideon walk over to the door to the conference room and open the door, walking out of the room towards his office.

 **####**

Emily groaned as her alarm went off the following morning.

She and Gideon had talked for an extended period of time the previous evening. She was relieved that she was almost done the paperwork that she had stayed to complete before he arrived.

She had felt so emotionally drained by the time he left from answering his questions about her time with JTF-12 and Bruno Hawks. But he had apologized for his accusations and explained where his suspicion had come from about Bruno. If nothing else she was glad they had an opportunity to talk and clear the air between them before she left that morning.

She was timing her arrival to be as close as possible to when she expected Hotch to arrive. She wanted to avoid any emotional confrontations with other members of the team today because she was already feeling vulnerable. And she didn't want to break down in the BAU.

As getting ready to head into work, she noticed the card on her dresser that Gideon had given her the previous evening. Walking over to her safe, she opened to and pulled out a manila envelope and a cell phone. After programming the number into the cell phone, she placed the card in the manila envelope before putting both items back in the safe.

Now it was time to head into the BAU and do what she had been dreading for weeks now.


	13. Chapter 12

**AN: This is the last chapter for this story. Hope you enjoy it. Thanks to everyone for your patience on getting these last few chapters done.**

 **The idea this approach on Gideon leaving was based off a comment Rossi made doing Omnivore about Gideon blaming himself for everything.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

After leaving the conference room, Gideon slowly made his way to his office and sat at his desk. He had come in tonight to sort out some things before Spencer dropped by for them to play chess. After the team returned from Flagstaff he had gone up to his cabin to contemplate his future. It was time he should have given himself after Sarah's murder. He had thought it would be best to go right back to work and that had been a mistake.

He had gained some clarity on his time off about stepping away from the field for a while. He had arranged tonight with Spencer to tell him knowing that the younger man would take the news harder than anyone else. He hadn't expected anyone else to be here since the only one he had ever seen here at this time was Hotch and he was still suspended right now.

A suspension that if it was given to anyone, it should have been him. But Hotch being the man and leader that he is took the responsibility. He still didn't know what to say to the Unit Chief next time he saw him.

But tonight he hadn't been prepared to see Prentiss. However he had used the opportunity to ask some lingering questions as well as clearing the air with her. He had been wrong when he suspected her of doing Bruno's bidding. Like all of the others that he had identified, Bruno had used CIA assets to enrich himself with no consideration about how it would affect any of them. Some got through unscathed while other like Prentiss were doing their best to live with the scars while others died either during the mission or afterwards.

And he still couldn't shake that he was partially responsible for it. He had interviewed and written the psych evals. He had essentially given Bruno a blueprint of the psyche of each. Information about their background. In essence, he had given a complete psychological profile for each one of these agents to a sociopath. One that Bruno had used against them for his own gains.

And it wasn't the first time he had come up against it even this year. In the fall he discovered that detectives in Chicago had, after requesting a profile for one of their case, used it improperly to accuse one of their own of murder. They too had improperly used one of his profiles to accuse someone they had been after for years instead of as a tool for shrinking a suspect pool.

He had a hard time getting past how close that case came to turning out so differently for Morgan particularly after he disappeared from the police station. How his arrest had opened a huge gaping wound of what happened to him in the past. There was good that came out of the case in that a serial pedophile turned murderer was identified and arrested but it came at a cost.

Then there was Sarah. A friend since college. They had both married other people and had families but in recent years had found each other again. They both had busy schedules and tried to meet whenever they could.

Maybe it should have been an omen that they had been having dinner at his cabin when the head had been delivered a year earlier during that awful case with Randall Gardner. That experience shook her just as he had him as it had compromised, what until that day, his safe haven. Sarah hadn't been in any hurry to return to the cabin after that night.

So a few weeks ago, she had asked about coming to DC to see him. She had commented about it being safer in the city instead of out in the middle of nowhere. Little did either of them know that danger would show up at his door the night she was there making dinner for them. Danger that was meant for him. Danger in the form of a prolific psychopath who Gideon had been forced to let go in order to save a busload of children. A psychopath who then blamed Gideon for the disappearance of his obsession, Jane.

Jane. Who was the only person to survive Frank but had never really escaped from him. She had been trying to get away a couple of times from Frank but each time was pulled back into his web. The last time at the train station they had only involved Jane because once again only Frank knew the location of a missing child, Tracey Belle, and refused to reveal that location until he had Jane. Before any of them could stop them Frank and Jane had jumped in front of a train.

Tracey Belle. He clearly remembered her from the original case they worked when they were investigating murders. In cooperation with the police they had spoken to the local children about following a buddy system so none of them would be caught alone by the UNSUB. And being the child she was Tracey had followed those instructions which unfortunately had put her alone with the UNSUB who turned out to be peer.

The team's mad dash through the woods as they tried to track them down had almost been too late as Gideon himself barely reached the boy in time to get the bat out of his hands.

Tracey had been unharmed at least physically. Her family, in an attempt to heal, had moved to the DC area. And then because of her connection to the BAU. Because she was in his damn book, she was again targeted. Her babysitter killed and Tracey herself kidnapped and taken all the way to NYC to be locked in a closet in that morbid apartment with Frank's long deceased mother. At least at the end of the day, Tracey was back with her parents though he wondered how their family would move forward a second time.

That would be in contrast to Rebecca Bryant who would now never have the chance to move forward. She had survived a house fire that killed her mother and siblings while severely scarring her father when she was four. Her eventual adoption healed the trauma only so much as she acted out. When she disappeared it was written off as running away instead of kidnapping as would ultimately be determined.

She was held by her biological father whose mental state had been compromised after the fire who then held her prisoner. His attack on the BAU during the Fisher King case ended with the team narrowly rescuing Rebecca from the burning house she was being held in after her father set off a bomb.

In the time since then, she had made peace with her adoptive parents and started to rebuilt her life - getting her GED, finding a job and moving into her own apartment. And then because of his book, she was targeted by Frank who pretended to be Gideon himself when approaching Rebecca. Then before the team could reach her, Frank killed her as well. A devastating end for the young woman just as things were starting to come together for her.

He could help but blame himself because what happened to Tracey and Rebecca happened because of him. Because of his book. The book was for him - to remember those the team saved as well as those lost. But in the wrong hands it had become a weapon. But as Bruno and the detectives in Chicago had done, Frank too had used it as a blueprint of someone vulnerabilities and used it to harm.

As Gideon looked around his office he was hit with the realization that he couldn't do this anymore. He needed to get away from the BAU and out of DC. He needed to leave now. He couldn't be responsible for harm coming to anyone else. He stood up and packed up a few personal items from his office.

As he was getting ready to walk out of his office, his eyes fell onto the pictures across from his desk. He stopped and put his bag down before grabbing a box and piling the pictures into it. He couldn't leave them here and potentially put all of these people in danger too by another psychopath that wanted to get the BAU's attention.

With that done, he put his bag onto his shoulder, picked up the box and walked out of the now empty office.

 **####**

It was two days later and Gideon had just finished packing up his car. After leaving the BAU, he had returned to his cabin. When he arrived, he realized that he had forgotten he had plans with Spencer to play chess. Spencer was another person he felt guilty about being involved in this work. He had recruited him out of college only considering the benefit of Spencer's intellect for the work of the BAU and not the potential harm to Spencer himself.

He tried a couple of times to call him but couldn't do it. He needed to keep his distance in order to keep Spencer safe. So while taking a break from packing, he wrote a letter to Spencer trying to explain though knowing that he had come short as there was so much he couldn't say.

He put the psych evals back into his locked cabinet and before he closed it, he added all the pictures that were now out of the frames as well as what was left of his book. He needed to keep them safe as well.

It was too early to know what would happen with the information he had compiled about what Bruno had been doing at the CIA. All he could hope for now is that at least one of the people he had sent it to was above board and something would be done to fix the systemic issues that allowed Bruno to get away with it for so long.

As he got into the car, he glanced at the files about the members of the BAU team sitting on the seat next to him. He knew where he was taking those though he hoped his old friend was where Gideon was hoping he was.

Driving down the road, Gideon went in the direction of David Rossi's hunting cabin. He was hoping his old friend would be willing to protect the team and the unit they created together.


End file.
